Showtime is developing a show about athletes using steroids

Everyone knows the old saying about something being “as American as baseball and apple pie.” In fact, the only thing more American than that—other than maybe apple pie with disgusting cheese on top—is cheating at baseball. And so Showtime has announced that it’s going to celebrate this rich, American tradition with Dope, a drama series about athletes using performance-enhancing drugs (not, as the name suggests, a gritty re-telling of The Seven Dwarves or some kind of marijuana reference). This news comes via Deadline, which reports that Ray Donovan’s David Hollander will handle the script, with Prometheus producer Michael Costigan doing what producers do.

Though Showtime apparently wants to stress that the project will tell a fictional story, Dope’s staff is already consulting with two journalists, Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts, who have extensively covered steroid abuse in Major League Baseball. So maybe real people like Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun won’t actually show up, but that won’t stop completely original characters like Bryan Raun and Alan Rodrigo from taking part. And if Dope needs some storyline ideas, may we suggest an episode where Bryan Raun’s team adopts an adorable puppy so people forget about his doping scandal? A crazy conspiracy like that is the sort of thing that would only happen on TV, anyway.